Illegal immigration on the rise as visa restrictions become strict

A recent new study has found that as the British government has put more control on the immigration system, it has driven up the number of people entering the UK illegally. While the the visa restrictions have cut overall migration as the government planned, academics said they can be “ineffective and counterproductive” because they force more people to find unlawful ways to cross borders.

The tighter restrictions that has been put on low skilled workers has appeared to reduce migration but has led to a significant portion of perspective immigrants turning to illegal ways to enter the country.

The study also found that restricting the number of visas granted to students and highly-skilled workers does little to cut overall migration.

Getty Images The study was conducted by academics at University College London (UCL), in conjunction with colleagues at the Royal Holloway and University of Birmingham, and was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Many campaigners in the UK have demanded for the government to relax its immigration rules. Ministers are under pressure to ease the strict visa restrictions and to abandon their promise to cut net migration to the ‘tens of thousands’.

The government’s ‘hostile environment’ for illegal immigrants was also greatly criticised earlier this year when a huge number of Windrush generation migrants were wrongly caught up and sent back.

UCL academic Miranda Simo, who led the study: “The largest reorientation towards unauthorised channels happens when the family route is closed, because it is the most easily accessible out of those considered.

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